FromAshesRisen Wiki:The origin of the Elder Races
'The origin of the Elder Races and their Gods' It is said that when the Sky Father sung his duet of love with the Goddess of the Land that the barren stones began to stir with awareness and started to argue with itself with thousands of voices. Finally the ground burst open to allow the Elder Races to appear. The First Children were the Elves although it is said that they looked different then, more ethereal. Nobody knows now, since so much knowledge is lost in the Delirium. It is said that the Mother waited for them with open arms, and that she breathed on them while the Sky Father smiled; that is why the Elves are so full of love. Not all new life left the ground, there were those that remained in the Stone that gave birth to them as they said the Stone needed healing; they would much later become the Drow, but that is a different story. These Dwellers in the Stone never experienced the Arms of the Mother nor the Smile of the Father, and this fact alone would change their history forever. Thus began the Age of Dreams. 'The Age of Dreams, the Elven Sun, the coming of the Titans and the birth of the Fae.' The Mother quickly noticed that some of her children experienced an emotion called hunger, so she sang another song called ‘the Song of the Wood’ and the Earth brought forth all the trees and plants we are so fond of. Some sages say that with this act the Mother did bring death in the world though, as now plants had to die for the nourishment of the Elves that turned more material once the ate. Yet the plants and trees were different then, more translucent and some say, less solid. It is said that the Elves sung songs and danced in the light of the stars. But even these trees suffered with the lack of light. Then she Sky Father gave a great gift to his beloved bride and their children: a golden sun which is called ‘Saturn-the Elven Sun’. It is not the sun we have today, or if it is, it has started to burn a lot brighter. We do not know much about this Saturn, since so much knowledge is lost in the Delirium, except that it was a soft, warm light that some say was comparable with the light intensity of twice our full moon on a cloudless night. With that light the trees started to change and grow fuller, and the world turned green. The first children were born. Yet other beings eternal that had watched from the realms beyond what was going on, got now involved. Some took form and flesh and seduced some Elven women and their offspring were the Giants of old’, the fathers of these Giants are called Nephilim but to the non initated better known as ‘the Titans’. How these Titans could operate in a world created by the Sky-Father and the Earth-Mother is unknown to us, as so much knowledge has been lost in the Delirium. It is at this time that we have to put our attention back to those that Dwellers in the Stone, the ancestors of our current day Drow. One of them, a woman named Narcotica followed a crack in the earth that she wanted to mend. Before she had realized it she had traveled to the surface as it was night and there she got caught by the leader of the Nephilim named Ba’shatan. In an attempt to gain her freedom she dared Ba’shatan into the sacred game of riddles. “Who dost extinguish the sun?” she asked; to which the Titan claimed: ‘Me”. “Proof it” answered Narcotica, “and I will serve thee forever.” This is why the Age of Dreams ended in a Nightmare because Ba’shatan did indeed steal the fire from the sun, and Saturn diminished until it was just its’ flying carcass that we can still see at night. You call it ‘the moon’. Yes, the moon is actually Saturn, but now without fire. I should not be surprised that you did not know this, so much of the knowledge has been lost in the Delirium. Since then Ba’shatan called himself ‘the Lightbearer.’ The shock of the extinguished sun caused the Elves to mourn and cry with all their heart and souls. Their intense emotions triggering the old magic of the First Song that still was present in the stones. The emotions got shape and form, and a new race appeared under the darkened sky: the Fae. The Fae are aspected powers given the shape of a humanoid. Some were caused by the loss of Saturns’ fire, some by the loss the now dying trees, some by the fear of the incoming ice and snow of the rapidly cooling world. Each emotional wave giving shape to a newly aspected Fae. This is the story of the Elder Races. The Sky Father was furious about what the Titans did and went to war, burying many of the Titans alive with stars he pulled down from the heavens. Among them was Ba’shatan, who was chained into a pool of fire. Now and then he yanks his chains, and that is when the earth trembles. The Sky-Father then sang a song of raw power which gave birth of a new sun, our sun named Sol. The Age of Kings had arrived. Sol now was very bright, so bright that many Elves still prefer the cool of night with the stars and moon. The newborn suns’ rays hit the land and a new race stirred into awakening: Early Man. But this is not the place to discuss the Proto Humans that developed into creatures we now call Orc, nor how some offspring of the Titans turned into Half Giants. Nay, let’s follow the Elder races into the new Age of Kings. 'The Age of Kings' Cities and palaces arose, lifting their jeweled spires to the skies as many of the destructive forces were still hiding in fear of the merciless light of Sol. And it came to pass that the Dwellers in the Stone realized that the birth of the Fae had eroded the Stone even more, and that the roots of the trees were mercilessly drilling deeper and deeper into the Stone. Something had to be done and that is when it is rumored that they managed to contact both Iod, the Bringer of Bad Luck and Zazel the Giver of Unwanted gifts. How they did it is unknown, as much knowledge has been lost in the Delirium. Yet even today both Iod and Zazel are visible in the sky, as specific regions of darkness between the stars, even today infusing the Arcane arts with dark powers. Iod taught the Dwellers how to curse the now sprawling cities and palaces of the Elves and Vanghoul. Zazel taught the Dwellers how to drain all life force of any captures spirit, and how to infuse that back into the Stones. Nobody knew who was behind it, but people were vanishing and especially the big trees started dying. Fae in particular disappeared and people wondered if that was just the natural cycle of things that the Fae who had suddenly appeared would as suddenly disappear, or that some kind of foul play was at stake. It is then that the Vanghoul started to distrust the Elves and vice versa. Fae that played on the darker impulses got more and more distrusted and people organized themselves around powerful leaders, giving rise to the first kings. To defend the forest and the streams the Earth Mother responded with a call to wild wandering spirits to bind themselves to certain trees and wells and this is how the Dryads and Nymphs came into being. Yet soon a rumor was whispered in the air: the bad luck that had happened, the disappearances and dying of certain trees had one cause and one cause only. The Elven should never had moved to live into cities, nor have kings like the Vanghoul! Accelerated by the whispers of a Fae of Division that had turned itself invisible the unthinkable happened: the Elven society split into those that stayed with their high culture and those that left to go back to live in harmony with, and like the animals in the forests. The Elven that stayed would become known as the High Elves, as they had the closest links, and in many times were still led by the First of the Elves that had awakened during the Age of Dreams. The Elves that left would become known as the Wild Elves. Yet the Earth-Mother was displeased with the rumblings of war between her children, and she intervened. It was then that the Elven Covenant was created, followed soon by the Vanghoul Tribal alliance in response. 'The End of the Age of Kings: the Phtumerian Empire.' No matter how many Fae they would capture and drain in their unholy rituals, no matter how many Elves, Proto-Humans, Dryads, Nymphs and even Half-Giants that followed in this horrific soul-draining fate, the Dwellers under the stone could not mend the Stone fast enough as they were now countered by powerful magics and rituals. Again the Dwellers reached out to the Void beyond, and it was their first king who got into contact with the Cosmic Serpent that Eats the Stars. “Feed my child, and thou will becomest the rulers of all those that betrayed the Stones” was its proposal to Phtume, the king of the Dwellers in the Stone that you now call Drow. “Thy child? Who is thy child?” “I will send it, feed it and thou willt build the most powerful kingdom this world has ever seen. Yea, thou will be called King of Kings, the Ruler of the First Empire” “Feed it with what?” “The souls of those that thou has captured. The flesh of their bones.” “My name is Phtume, and I will be the First and Only Emperor” the Dweller agreed. “From now on we shall no longer be called the Dwellers in the Stone, but the Phtumerians, and those who serve us voluntarily will be the Phtumekin.” ' And lo, the seed fell from the stars in the form of an egg, and it was nurtured by the Phtumekin.' Did Phtume ever doubt his choice? Did he intent to bring justice to those that forgot their origins? We don’t know, so much knowledge is lost in the Delirium. The Phtumerians now crawled out of the earth, and it is said that all the stones that they had mended cracked. The seed took the form of a snake, a snake with wings and all those who drank from its spit and survived, were filled with knowledge of the arcane. Never forget child, that the real knowledge came from beyond the stars, brought to us by the Nephilim. A bitter war ensued and the Elven Covenant as well as the Vanghoul Alliance was defeated. Kings were spiked and fed the venom of the Snake, they slowly died in agony on the Road of Woes while the spirits of their people were drained as long as life was left in crowned husks of the former kings. The Phtumerian Empire was unstoppable. It took many as slaves, sacrificed even more to the Winged Serpent whose wings grew so big that it blotted out the sun Sol. A whole continent, one third of the world, was taken and people called it ‘the Lands of Night’. ''' '''Now the Phtumerians could do what they had sworn to do, with this many souls they could mend the stone, although they mended it while creating corridors and halls. The lands above ground were called the Over-Dark, the lands below, the Under-Dark. Why did the Earth-Mother allow this you may ask? Why did she not call the Sky-Father to intervene into this abomination? We do not know the answer, as so much knowledge has been lost in the Delirium. It was in those days that a new race was born, a race of snake people that people call the Yuanti. Those Phtumerians that regularly partook in the consumption of the Venom and that survived started to change. It was seen as a great honor when the god would manifest itself into a changing body that was elevated to Yuanti status. The Snake-men were priests, extremely gifted in the occult, as tall as Half-Giants with the head that resembled more a snake than a Humanoid. Yet the Phtumerians, the ancestors or our Drow, made a big mistake like so many do that have slaves. In their dark arrogance they started to ignore the slaves, pretending that they were not present when they were around. Not worth to pay any attention. But paying attention the slaves did, like all servants and slaves, in any house, anywhere and anywhen in history. It was a Human slave, one that suffered from Dwarfism due to the constant presence of the Crying Skulls which fed the lights of the Imperial City, his name was Norkaius, that decided that with the knowledge he had gained he could actually kill the Winged Serpent. He, and two friends, Motholam and Frauki did the unthinkable, the Serpent was slain and in its death throes it destroyed the City of the Night; the Imperial Capitol. The three fearless leaders of the Dwarves however, ascended in their death, and this ascension is the end of the Age of Kings, and the beginning of the Age of Ascension. 'The Age of Ascension and the creation of the covenants.' The remaining Elven kings and their armies, the rebelling Orcs, and the rebelling Humans including the ones that had diminished in stature quickly overthrew the Phtumerians that were in confusion and despair after the fall of their god and the deaths of their leaders who had died in the rubble of the capitol. Those Snake-people that survived went into exile and hiding in a land far away. Yes, I see you thinking, are those statues and ruins that dot the landscape of Taluv that so often depict Snake-like people…? Yes, you are correct, the Yuanti were the first to rule these lands, unseen, and unnoticed by the rest of the world until the Age of Madness. It was the magic of the Phtumerian empire that shaped the land of Taluv and that the Ascendants later would use to fight the Delirium. A new world order arose, with Dwarves and Drow fighting for control of the Under-Dark, and Humans, Orcs, and Elves for control of the lands on the surface. Heroes and kings, mages and priests rose to immense power and new Covenants Arose. The Elven Covenant and the Vanghoul Alliance got competition from the Kingdom of Anour Hill which united the many different Human tribes. The Order of Felgarth ruled the magic users and scientists no matter which race, while the Cold Embrace rose as an inter-racial order of knights and heroes. The strongest, the bravest, the smartest ascended into god-hood, often taking the place of exceptional Fae spirits that till then had ruled the emotional domains that now were claimed by the Ascendants. It truly was a special Age, the gods even created their own city ''' '''It was during this Age that the Drow got a new god, it was a goddess, some claim an Ascendant Sorceress who became the goddess of spiders. 'The Age of Madness (the Delirium) and the Age of Destruction' When the Delirium arrived and the world dissolved into chaos, the Elder races, including the Drow, just like the other races had no choice than to try to escape to the lands that were least affected by the Delirium: Taluv. It is said that the Yuanti were eradicated by the Ascendants before they put their attention on stopping the encroaching Delirium. The Elves and Fae would predominantly settle in the Eastern Jungles. Their most beautiful city was abandoned and destroyed in the Age of Destruction. The Drow settled in a cave system that they found but even there the madness caused damage. Suddenly that age came to an end, and the Age of Awakening arrived. Will the Elves return to greatness? Will the lure of the Old Elven Covenant be enough to restore a once great civilization? ' ' ' ' 'The Elven Gods' Despite Ascendancies during the Age of Ascendants the core Elven Religion is still centered around the Sky-Father and the Earth-Mother. The Earth-Mother in particular is beloved above all. The core of the Elven religion has more and more shifted into the worshipping the Cycle of Nature as this is the main aspect of the Earth-Mother. Note that most Elves will call her simply ‘Mother’ or ‘The Mother’. The Sky-Father, who is the god of the suns, is above all a god for the afterlife. He is the judge of the dead who now and then visits our realm to hunt and collect the souls of those that need to depart to the other realm. When he visits, he rides the skies on a white horse whose hooves cause the sound of thunder, and in his wake follow the collected dead souls. The Sky-Father is the Punisher and the Granter of Life for those who are worthy. The Earth-Mother represents life in this realm, and she will represent the three faces of Maiden, Mother and Crone depending on the situation. Birth, Growth, Decline and Death. The cycle must not be broken. 'Festivals' 'First rites of spring' Also known as the festival of the Flower Maidens. Despite the word maiden there is a strong focus on sexual themes to celebrate the land becoming fertile again. 'The coming of the Summer King' Who gets to eat the pine-pit hidden in one of the cakes? He will represent the Summer King and can pick his court of the Ladies of Summer. Dressed only in leaves and body paint the shade the forest casts is celebrated in song, dance and other things of merriment. Pregnant ladies will have a seat of honor at the great banquet that will take all night in the light of glowing lanterns. 'The Procession of the Worm of Autumn' Fall is here, and the harvest is in. Time to celebrate with an abundance of food and wine. Time to celebrate the processes of decay in nature with a long procession where people dress up and smoke strange mushrooms. The Elves and their kin will dance in rows while intoxicated with the mushrooms (or Lotus and wine) and one by one they will collapse onto the piles of leaves. A lone flute player will try to play a melody around the earie sounds of the death-songs of a particular species of silk beetles who have been glued to wooden sticks thus accelerating their natural tendency to spin a cocoon to die in (just like some species of caterpillars, but these beetles make an earie sound when they die). Note that out of these dead beetles new ones will be born. 'Winters’ Hold' 'Some call it the ‘Death Gate’ festival. To be held at the shortest day of the year. '